HR Pulse

Gauteng premier will outline job-creation plan “in six months”

In his first state of the province address, newly elected Gauteng premier - David Makhura – announced that, in six months, he will deliver his plans to "secure" more than 300 000 jobs over the next five years. Why the delay Mr Makhura? Why can't you fast track this process – considering our massive unemployment problem?

In his maiden speech, the new Gauteng premier outlined very laudable projects – such as supporting township enterprises that would manufacture products and provide services for township residents – and undertook to hold a summit (within the next 200 days) to develop plans about how to carry his vision forward.

Makhura also indicated that he plans to invest in sectors such as ICT, manufacturing and construction.

"To boost employment and economic inclusion, the provincial government and municipalities will procure 75% of all goods and services from South African producers, especially SMMEs, township enterprises and black-owned, woman and youth enterprises.

"We are working closely with state-owned enterprises, Prasa and Transnet, to re-industrialise our province and build economic infrastructure that will boost employment creation and economic inclusion through investing more than R300 billion in post, freight, rail and pipeline capacity," said Makhura in a report on The Star website.

Although this statement makes Premier Makhura look like he's doing something worthwhile, I have a number of problems with this plan of action:

• Why is this summit – which is going to be convened to discuss how the unemployment problem can be solved – only going to happen within the next 200 days? That's approximately six months – which takes us to December – so realistically, with businesses shutting down around the end of the year, this summit will only take place in the first quarter of next year.
• The era of economies being based on manufacturing and construction has well and truly passed. So surely a training plan should be put in place to ensure that people – who are currently on the breadline – receive the necessary skills and training that will allow them to receive a decent wage in the knowledge economy – when manufacturing and construction are no longer industries that are relied upon so heavily for jobs?

Something to think about.

Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company.